Michael Deibert | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/profile/michael-deibert
Latest news and features from theguardian.com, the world's leading liberal voiceen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2018Thu, 24 May 2018 20:40:41 GMT2018-05-24T20:40:41Zen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2018The Guardianhttps://assets.guim.co.uk/images/guardian-logo-rss.c45beb1bafa34b347ac333af2e6fe23f.pnghttps://www.theguardian.com
René Préval obituaryhttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/07/rene-preval-obituary
President of Haiti who managed to bring a measure of tranquillity to a country besieged by poverty and violence<p>René Préval, who has died at the age of 74, will be remembered as the only president in Haiti’s history who twice turned power over to a democratically elected successor in a country marked by coups and political strife.</p><p>Haiti’s leaders are often defined by their grandiose tastes and a love of the sound of their own voices, but Préval’s style was understated. Whereas some previous Haitian rulers would hold court seated on what resembled a golden throne, Préval’s ethos was better summed up by the time he arrived at the border town of Belladère on the back of a motorcycle-taxi to tell residents that his goal for the country was peace.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/07/rene-preval-obituary">Continue reading...</a>HaitiJean-Bertrand AristideUS newsTue, 07 Mar 2017 17:14:18 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/07/rene-preval-obituaryPhotograph: KeystoneUSA-ZUM/REX/ShutterstockPhotograph: KeystoneUSA-ZUM/REX/ShutterstockMichael Deibert2017-03-07T17:14:18Z‘Rotten system’ blamed as Haiti’s election ends in stalematehttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/13/rotten-system-blamed-haiti-election-stalemate
Outgoing president Michel Martelly cuts a deal on the 30th anniversary of the fall of Duvaliers<p>The sun finally broke through the clouds in Haiti’s capital on Friday, puddles glistening under its rays on streets filled with the sound of schoolchildren singing, the roar of moto-taxis and the lilt of market women calling to one another in Creole, Haiti’s poetic local language.</p><p>Haiti needed some relief, and not just because of its out-of-season rains. February is an auspicious month here, and this year – on 7 February – the nation was to mark the 30th anniversary of the fall of the 29-year Duvalier family dictatorship with the inauguration of a newly elected president. The ascension was to be the fruit of a three-part election cycle that began last summer, an endeavour that the United States spent $30m supporting.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/13/rotten-system-blamed-haiti-election-stalemate">Continue reading...</a>HaitiAmericasWorld newsSat, 13 Feb 2016 19:58:24 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/13/rotten-system-blamed-haiti-election-stalematePhotograph: Bahare Khodabande/EPAPhotograph: Bahare Khodabande/EPAMichael Deibert in Port-au-Prince2016-02-13T19:58:24ZHaiti dances nervously towards bitterly contested presidential electionhttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/21/haiti-presidential-election-carnival
<p>Carnival begins on 7 February, the same day a new leader is to be sworn in – unless the vote is delayed. But a mood of foreboding dogs Haiti’s murky politics</p><p><span tabindex="-1">They marched in their thousands to the throb of drums and the incantatory wail of the long bamboo wind instruments Haitians call </span><em tabindex="-1">vaksin</em><span tabindex="-1">. Joyously waving flags and chanting, the multitude surged from the wealthy suburb of Pétionville down the traffic-clogged Route de Frères, where phantasmal swirls of dust were illuminated by the lights of cars and the keros</span><span tabindex="-1">ene flames of women selling patties.</span></p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/03/american-red-cross-squandered-aid-haiti-earthquake-report-alleges">American Red Cross squandered aid after Haiti earthquake, report alleges</a> </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/21/haiti-presidential-election-carnival">Continue reading...</a>HaitiWorld newsAmericasGovernanceGlobal developmentThu, 21 Jan 2016 15:21:31 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/21/haiti-presidential-election-carnivalPhotograph: Dieu Nalio Chery/APPhotograph: Dieu Nalio Chery/APMichael Deibert in Port-au-Prince2016-01-21T15:21:31ZCould the gangs of Port-au-Prince form a pact to revitalise Haiti's capital?https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jul/14/gangs-port-au-prince-haiti-capital-armed-groups-communities
<p>Haiti’s leaders have long made use of armed groups to impose their will in the streets of vibrant but derelict Port-Au-Prince, offering precious little in return. Now some of those communities may have had enough</p><p>Sitting inside the Day-Glo-coloured nightclub that he runs on a hillside speckled with squat cement houses, Christla Chery, 32, pushes his baseball cap back on his head and outlines his community’s problems.<br></p><p>“We don’t have water, we don’t have electricity, we don’t have anything here. The state is completely absent from this neighbourhood,” he says, as the Caribbean winds clatter over the zinc roof. “This is a prison where we are deprived of our liberty. We would like the freedom of every person here to enter society.”</p><p>We don’t have water, we don’t have electricity, we don’t have anything here. The state is completely absent …</p><p>One of the loveliest towns in the New World … The walls of houses and the twin spires of the cathedral gleam brightly through and above deep banks of foliage … It is through wide, clean streets, through the open park of the Champs de Mars, through a town that is half a garden, that you drive out toward the hills.</p><p>We need to redefine ourselves as a nation, and the vision is to change a corrupted system</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jul/02/miami-florida-cuba-multicultural-metropolis-diversity-hispanic-haiti">Making sense of Miami: what America's refuge city says about the US's future</a> </p><p><em>Towards three o’clock in the afternoon the wind picked up suddenly, galloping and roaring through the city. The pelicans over the port whirled endlessly. The sea put on its fancy green dress and donned shawls of lace foam. </em></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jul/14/gangs-port-au-prince-haiti-capital-armed-groups-communities">Continue reading...</a>CitiesHaitiAmericasWorld newsGangsCommunitiesSocietyTue, 14 Jul 2015 11:01:17 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jul/14/gangs-port-au-prince-haiti-capital-armed-groups-communitiesPhotograph: Rebecca Blackwell/APPhotograph: Rebecca Blackwell/APMichael Deibert in Port-au-Prince2015-07-14T11:01:17ZMaking sense of Miami: what America's refuge city says about the US's futurehttps://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jul/02/miami-florida-cuba-multicultural-metropolis-diversity-hispanic-haiti
<p>The dizzying blend of accents entices some visitors and alarms others. But as the US gets ever-closer to Cuba, long-time Miami resident Michael Deibert asks: what can the rest of America learn from its own multicultural metropolis?<br></p><p>Just off Miami’s busy Calle Ocho, the thoroughfare that is the beating cultural heart of the city’s Cuban community, there rises a splendid ceiba tree whose roots erupt from the ground like waves from the sea, and whose vast branches throw shade far to either side.</p><p>All around the gnarled roots and tucked into the tree’s hidden crevices, one finds the offerings of the faithful: candles, bags of food, feathers, bones. In this modern metropolis, whose vaulting skyscrapers a mile away reflect the near-blinding sun, the saturnalia surrounding the ceiba attests to the lifeblood of the Afro-Cuban religion of <em>santería</em>, and Miami’s eternal place in the imagination of <em>el exilio</em>, as the Cuban community is often referred to.</p><p>It’s a unique case in the history of the US where the identity of a city was born, in a sense, in another country</p><p>The city has blossomed and has a new cultural heritage</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/11/miami-drowning-climate-change-deniers-sea-levels-rising">Miami, the great world city, is drowning while the powers that be look away</a> </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jul/02/miami-florida-cuba-multicultural-metropolis-diversity-hispanic-haiti">Continue reading...</a>CitiesMiamiUnited States holidaysUS newsMiami holidaysWorld newsTravelNorth and Central America holidaysThu, 02 Jul 2015 11:10:54 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jul/02/miami-florida-cuba-multicultural-metropolis-diversity-hispanic-haitiPhotograph: ReutersPhotograph: ReutersMichael Deibert in Miami2015-07-02T11:10:54ZHavana: one of the world's great cities on the brink of a fraught transitionhttps://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jun/17/havana-city-brink-change
<p>With negotiations under way to restore US ties, the Cuban capital’s days as a kind of open-air museum where time stood still are numbered. As the country opens up to the outside world, its people look likely to push for faster change</p><p>To visit Havana in the late spring, before the torpid humidity and showers of summer, is a glorious thing. Strolling through the streets of La Habana Vieja, its derelict and weather-worn facades still elegant, one encounters the grandeur of squares such as the Plaza de la Catedral, its church built in 1727, where leisurely cats and songbirds find refuge from the exhaust fumes that plague so much of the city. </p><p>As they have for decades, at dusk fishermen cast their lines and nets off the <a href="http://www.lonelyplanet.com/cuba/downtown-havana/sights/neighbourhoods-villages/malecon">Malecón</a> and into the splashing Caribbean, the sun descending as a fiery globe into the sea before them. In Vedado, once a glittering nightlife destination for the 1950s jet set, the old houses and green parks manage to catch some afternoon coolness as they slouch down towards the bay.</p><p>Cuba – including even its increasingly cosmopolitan capital – remains an authoritarian state</p><p>Prostitution remains a fact of life in Havana and a draw for a certain kind of tourist, as it has since the early 90s</p><p>It sometimes seems like … the ruins of a once-great civilisation, now being squatted by a banana republic</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/may/12/havana-habana-libre-castro-cuba-us-history-cities-50-buildings-day-34">Havana's Habana Libre, pawn in Castro's battle against the US - a history of cities in 50 buildings, day 34</a> </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jun/17/havana-city-brink-change">Continue reading...</a>CitiesHavana holidaysCuba holidaysCaribbean holidaysTravelCubaWorld newsAmericasNorth and Central America holidaysWed, 17 Jun 2015 06:30:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/jun/17/havana-city-brink-changePhotograph: Walter Bibikow/Walter Bibikow/JAI/CorbisPhotograph: Walter Bibikow/Walter Bibikow/JAI/CorbisMichael Deibert in Havana2015-06-17T06:30:00ZResurrecting Newburgh, the once-grand American city that had its heart torn outhttps://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/apr/08/resurrecting-newburgh-once-grand-american-city-heart-torn-out
<p>Sixty miles north of Manhattan, Newburgh is one of the most architecturally significant of US cities. But its proud history has been undermined by organised crime, drugs and decay – and its struggle to recover is a test-case for the nation<br></p><p>The snow falling on Newburgh’s Washington Square glows under the moonlight. It was here, located on a steep rise overlooking the water now pooling between slabs of ice on the Hudson River, that George Washington and <a href="http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/war-for-independence/resources/george-washington-and-newburgh-conspiracy-1783">the Continental Army weathered the last years of their rebellion</a> against British rule, and where, in April 1783, Washington declared a cessation of hostilities, formally ending the American Revolution and effectively declaring the birth of the United States. In the meditative quiet, from the opposite bank the looming mass of <a href="http://www.scenichudson.org/parks/mountbeacon">Mount Beacon</a> is visible. Through the drifts of snow, the old row of houses surrounding the square – many in various stages of restoration – hold on as ships in a storm.</p><p>“To step out my door and see nothing that was built in the last 100 years is something very special,” says David Ludwig, a native of Utah who moved to this city of 30,000 four years ago and opened up a cafe, Martha (named after Washington’s wife). “The way this built environment fits with nature is perfect. There are mountains on the horizon, and it’s beautifully planned and preserved. But it’s sad for the people what has happened to this place.”</p><p>It’s the story of a place whose buildings speak not only of a faded grandeur but of America's frayed social contract</p><p>People watched their homes and businesses get torn down with wrecking balls. They tore the heart out of this city</p><p>The violence is real. Anywhere you go where there is poverty you’ll find gangs</p><p>Latinos have almost been the invisible ghosts that have kept the community and the city going</p><p>What happens here is important because it exhibits the success – or not – of our democracy</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/apr/08/resurrecting-newburgh-once-grand-american-city-heart-torn-out">Continue reading...</a>CitiesUrbanisationNew YorkUS newsUnited States holidaysMigrationSouth America holidaysFinancial crisisUS crimeWorld newsWed, 08 Apr 2015 11:03:48 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/apr/08/resurrecting-newburgh-once-grand-american-city-heart-torn-outPhotograph: Liz CookePhotograph: Liz CookeMichael Deibert in Newburgh2015-04-08T11:03:48ZGuatemala's lonely battle against corruption | Michael Deiberthttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/nov/11/guatemala-mexico
While Mexico's war on drugs cartels makes headlines, its bloody consequences for its southern neighbour are all but overlooked<p>Fourteen years after Guatemala's government signed a peace agreement with a coalition of guerrilla groups <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemalan_Civil_War">ending a 30-year civil war</a>, the country finds itself once again in the grip of armed conflict, though one in which the battle lines are even murkier than before.&nbsp;While drug-related violence plaguing the border regions of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/mexico">Mexico has achieved a kind of grisly global renown</a> in recent years, the even deadlier battle directly to the south has generated little comment on the international stage. &nbsp;</p><p>Central America's most populous country, Guatemala has become the scene of a brutal power struggle involving Mexican cartels who have been pushed south by President Felipe Calderón's militarised campaign against drug traffickers there, and Guatemala's indigenous criminal groups, many of whom have their roots in a military intelligence apparatus set up with US aid during the country's internal armed conflict.&nbsp;</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/nov/11/guatemala-mexico">Continue reading...</a>GuatemalaMexicoDrugs tradeWorld newsUS newsUS foreign policyUnited NationsHuman rightsInternational criminal justiceAmericasFri, 12 Nov 2010 13:30:01 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/nov/11/guatemala-mexicoPhotograph: Rodrigo Abd/APPolice officers stand next to the decapitated head of a man, bagged and tagged as evidence by investigators, in Guatemala City, June 2010. Four decapitated heads were found in prominent areas of the capital in what police said were likely revenge killings in response to a crackdown on organised crime. Photography: AP Photo/Rodrigo AbdPhotograph: Rodrigo Abd/APPolice officers stand next to the decapitated head of a man, bagged and tagged as evidence by investigators, in Guatemala City, June 2010. Four decapitated heads were found in prominent areas of the capital in what police said were likely revenge killings in response to a crackdown on organised crime. Photography: AP Photo/Rodrigo AbdMichael Deibert2010-11-12T13:30:01ZThe international community's responsibility to Haiti | Michael Deiberthttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jul/12/haiti-earthquake-redevelopment
IMF-mandated economic policies drove rural Haitians to Port-au-Prince's slums, where they bore the full force of the earthquake<p>It is a gloomy anniversary: the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jul/11/haiti-earthquake-victims-wait-for-aid" title="Observer: Six months on, Haiti earthquake victims wait for billions in aid">six-month mark since the earthquake</a> that levelled vast swaths of Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, and surrounding towns, killing well over 200,000 people.</p><p>Though the earthquake was promiscuously destructive, killing the good and the bad, the rich and the poor, those who still remain encamped in sprawling tent cities lashed by tropical rains in and around the capital now represent the lowest and most disempowered strata of Haitian society. They are the Haitians who, for generations, have fled the poverty of the countryside to its largest city in search of jobs that were not there and where only further struggle awaited them.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jul/12/haiti-earthquake-redevelopment">Continue reading...</a>HaitiNatural disasters and extreme weatherWorld newsInternational Monetary Fund (IMF)International tradeBusinessGlobal developmentAmericasEarthquakesPort-au-PrinceMon, 12 Jul 2010 11:16:33 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/jul/12/haiti-earthquake-redevelopmentPhotograph: Tiago Petinga/EPAVictims of the earthquake lie outside the Hospital of the Haitian Community in Port-au-Prince. Photograph: Tiago Petinga/EPAPhotograph: Tiago Petinga/EPAVictims of the earthquake lie outside the Hospital of the Haitian Community in Port-au-Prince. Photograph: Tiago Petinga/EPAMichael Deibert2010-07-12T11:16:33Z